Lake Nona developer will build city park

At 334 acres, the sprawling site in south Orange County would be Orlando's biggest recreation facility.

August 15, 2007|By Mark Schlueb, Sentinel Staff Writer

Lake Nona, the future home of a medical school, a major biotech firm and a veterans hospital, is getting another notch on its belt: It will contain Orlando's largest public park.

The developer of the massive southeast Orlando community has agreed to build a sprawling park at the south end of Lake Nona and then turn it over to the city. The park will include sports fields, a golf range, lakes for canoeing and hiking and biking trails.

At 334 acres, the as-yet-unnamed park will be the biggest of Orlando's more than 100 recreation areas. It pushes 300-acre Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake to second place and will be more than seven times the size of the city's signature park downtown, Lake Eola.

The park and related infrastructure will cost the developer about $16 million plus land the developer estimates is worth "tens of millions" of dollars. In exchange, the city will pay the developer $4 million in tax rebates over 25 years.

"This is a great deal for the city," said City Commissioner Phil Diamond, who represents the area. "Right now, there's a real deficit of parks in southeast Orlando. We desperately need more parks and ball fields."

The community's builders readily concede that they're getting something valuable in this deal, too. The park will be a huge selling point for the developer, which already touts Lake Nona's recreational amenities when it sells the multimillion-dollar homes that make up the 7,000-acre development.

"Some of that land [benefits Lake Nona] as a park," said Jim Zboril, president of Lake Nona Property Holdings. "It really is a win-win. We're able to put together this huge project and use the land to its fullest."

And though it hasn't been decided, the developer could cut its costs by passing on some of the expense to its property owners in the form of special assessments.

For their part, city officials say the deal with Lake Nona Land Co. guarantees that the park will be completed much sooner than would otherwise be possible, at a fraction of the cost to taxpayers. The Lake Nona park also will allow the city to surpass state standards for recreation space in that part of Orlando.

The growth of Lake Nona, coupled with Orlando's aggressive annexation of other commercial and residential developments, has made the southeastern area the fastest-growing sector of the city. Orlando now reaches far beyond the traditional heart of the city all the way to the Osceola County line, at times straining City Hall's ability to provide services and amenities, including parks.

Families in the nearby East Park neighborhood, for instance, must drive about eight miles to use the closest city soccer field. And property-tax cuts mandated by the Florida Legislature make it unlikely that the city would, on its own, build a new park in southeast Orlando any time soon.

The park will be at the south end of the community, adjacent to its so-called medical city where the University of Central Florida medical school, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and a new Veterans Affairs hospital will be built.

It will include three phases, with the first featuring a playground, baseball and soccer fields, golf practice area, picnic facilities, courts for tennis, basketball and volleyball and room for a future community center and pool. The second phase will include a boardwalk, fishing pier and canoe launch. Phase three will be mostly left in its natural state, with 31/2 miles of unpaved trails.

"The cool thing about it is there will be a lot of different components to it," Zboril said. "Hopefully, it will have something for everyone."

Under the terms of an agreement recently approved by the City Council, Lake Nona must complete the park's design and construction before finishing construction of the 1,000th home in the south part of the development, or within four years, whichever comes first.

Zboril said the company would begin designing the park as soon as possible, with the hope of opening much earlier than 2011. "I'd like to move it along," he said. "Things don't get cheaper with time."

Lake Nona will spend an estimated $5.8 million to build the park, plus an additional $10 million for access roads, infrastructure and lake excavation. Zboril was reluctant to put a value on the 334 acres of land his company will turn over to the city, but said it would be worth "tens of millions."

Some of the work, such as the lakes needed for retention of storm water, would have been necessary anyway. And the company would have been required to set aside some land for green space in exchange for development approval.

But the developer's early discussions with Orlando officials, which began about two years ago, focused on fewer than 100 acres. And the developer would only have been required to set aside the land, not build the park.

The $4 million the city will pay the developer over 25 years will come from increased property-tax collections within the Lake Nona development.

"It's way beyond" what the developer would have been required to do, Orlando parks-division manager Denny Scott said. "They're going to donate the property and do the infrastructure."